Birdies!

The Sparrows discovered that I filled the feeders this morning. They arrived in droves or should that be flocks. Anyway, a whole lot of birds showed up. These Sparrows threw out seed so that the Sparrows and Mourning Doves on the ground had a lot to eat.

Some of the Sparrows enjoyed pecking at the suet cakes. These suet-y cakes are not as popular as the others I bought. I think that the suet sticks to their beaks and annoys them. I see them pecking and then rubbing their beak on the perch to get off a glob of suet. Yum.

This chipmunk was sitting in the shade up on its haunches looking so cute rubbing its mouth with its paws so I picked up the camera and as soon as I pressed the shutter button it took off and this is what I got. Those little critters are fast!

I spent quite a bit of the middle of the day listening to ten chapters of Open For Business audio files. My list of corrections is much shorter than the last one which is a relief. I must have made some additions when I had the manuscript in Kindle Create because a few sentences here and there aren't in the manuscript I sent to TH. That's okay, it isn't making a lot of difference to the story. I decided to give my eyes a rest after ten chapters. I've got tomorrow and Monday left to finish listening. If I'm determined to finish over the holiday weekend, that is. I'm not really on a time pressure except one that I give myself.

Today's drawing is from 20 Ways to Draw a Butterfly. No butterflies this time, just a toucan, flying horse, an owl, a pterodactyl, a bat, and a flying fish. I like the look on the bat's face.

And I made time to draw a gratitude journal page. Nothing too noteworthy just a few things that made me smile today.

Today is the end of August already. Where does time go? It seems like the days just fly by taking the months with them. At least once a day I have to remind myself what day of the week it is. I can't decide if that's just being old or a symptom of retirement.

--Barbara

Flowery

I slept late this morning. Didn't wake up until almost 9:30am. Of course I stayed up until 12:30am last night so that makes sense. Which explains why I wasn't dressed when the doorbell rang around 11 o'clock. I figured that it was a political canvasser so I didn't hurry to dress. I could pick up the door hanger info card later. But I went out and there was a box from 1-800-Flowers on my porch! I opened it up and there was a bouquet with a Happy Birthday card from DD. What a lovely surprise! There are six roses and a whole load of those Peruvian lilies called Alstromeria. Those last a long time so I'll have pretty flowers for days, maybe a week. Thanks, DD!

When I looked out the window I noticed that there were a couple Dad's roses blooming so I went out to take their picture. I missed the flowers' prime but they're still beautiful and they still smell great, much nicer and rosier than the florist flowers. There's nothing like those old roses for fragrance.

I decided to try my hand at drawing one of the roses in the bouquet this afternoon. It isn't too bad, not the best version of a rose ever but it might be my best stab at one.

Here's the actual finished Red Preemie Hat. I spent a couple minutes this afternoon running yarn through the last stitches on the needles, cinching the top closed, and weaving in the starting and ending tails. Some little brunette baby will look smashing in this hat.

And for a blond baby I cast on this lavender, light blue, white, and green model that's just knit 1, purl 1 ribbing for 30 rounds and then a little decreasing to top it off. I'm calling it the Ribbed Preemie Hat. The pattern calls for casting on 64 stitches which I did and started knitting but it was making a BIG hat, too big for a tiny preemie, so I pulled out the needles and turned it back into just yarn. I looked at the decreases for the top and chose a stitch count of 48 stitches which looks like it'll fit a little head.

I filled the bird feeders yesterday afternoon but no birds showed up today. I know they'll come eventually and make short work of all of the seed and suet but I miss them when they don't come. I know I shouldn't wait so long between fillings if I want them to stick around but I just can't afford to keep buying that much birdseed.

I started listening to the audio files of Open For Business today. I got through the Intro and the first four chapters. I hope to get through the whole book this weekend (including Monday) so that it'll be out there for sale with the rest of them in the next couple weeks. I talked to a Customer Service person at ACX yesterday and asked about ways to advertise my audiobooks. She directed me to a page on their Help site that has some helpful tips but I want a way to make an ad or discount the price for a week to attract listeners and reviews. There's gotta be a way. I have Promo Codes that I'd be happy to share with anyone willing to sign up for a free 30-day trial Audible membership in return for a review or reviews. Email me or respond to this post.

--Barbara

Mm, Delicious!

This afternoon I went to the Military Avenue Neighborhood Farmers Market and brought home a few things. I got some really tall green onions, a beautiful bell pepper, a 7-layer bar, and three absolutely gorgeous tomatoes. I got compliments on my basket too. I love that basket. I carried it home from Jamaica on my lap in 1986 filled with seashells and broken pieces of coral. Wow, that was a long time ago!

I used one of the tomatoes to build my BLTs for supper. I make two open-face sandwiches instead of one closed sandwich. More tomato, more lettuce, more bacon, same amount of bread! So good!

For drawing inspiration I flipped through Draw 500 Fabulous Flowers and found this rose (maybe) and orchid (probably). They were less difficult to copy than I thought they'd be.

Tonight I got to tuck in the small people so I took my knitting and finished the Red Preemie Hat except for drawing the yarn through the remaining stitches and weaving in the ends. I didn't have the tools to perform those actions with me. I can't believe I was without a scissors and tapestry needle but there you have it. I'll have to finish up tomorrow.

I spent some time working on the manuscript this afternoon and this morning I finalized my September Monthly Progress email and got that scheduled. I have to remember to do the one for October 1 before I leave for The Clearing on September 28. Only four weeks from Saturday! Hooray! I can't wait.

--Barbara

Ten Days Later

I picked all of the tomatoes that had begun to change color over a week ago and this one that had spots and divots on it had ripened enough that I decided to eat it on my BLT tonight for supper. (This is how it looked ten days ago.) I didn't take a picture of it but it was nice and red so I cut out the scabby parts, sliced it, and it tasted like a real tomato. I do believe that I'll be having another BLT for supper tomorrow night. It's a good thing I bought a second box of al fresco uncured chicken bacon when I was at the store on Monday because I'm really plowing through the stuff. I am completely enamored with the L'Oven Fresh Keto Friendly bread I got at ALDI that lets me have two slices for one point. I'm having toast! I haven't had toast in months, no, years. It's luxurious.

Another Downy Woodpecker (or the same one I can't tell them apart) landed on the empty side of the suet cakes feeder this morning. It took him a while but he figured out that there was suet cake on the other side of the feeder so he sidestepped over there to have some.

Most of what I did this morning was print off the manuscript I've been working on, all 159 pages of it. It occurred to me that I have an easier time of editing on paper than on the screen and I can print off new scenes and slot them in or cut and tape them together. And I looked through these two Anguilla guidebooks that I've had on the shelf and they both make restaurant recommendations and other activity recommendations so I don't have to make up quite as much for Rose's guests to do.

Last night before bed I cast on a preemie hat in this scrumptious red yarn I found when I was digging around in the knitting bags that are piled next to the desk in the living room. So I picked it up after supper and after my shower and got this far. Preemie hats are small so they provide a certain amount of instant gratification. I've said it before, I'm a slow knitter so something small like this makes me feel accomplished.

 

Also in the morning, before I even changed out of my pjs, I drew a gratitude journal page for yesterday. I didn't do one for today--yet--so you get to see what I was grateful for yesterday. Hey, it's the only drawing I did today so I'm putting it on here.

I spent a lot of the day trying to talk myself out of going out to mow this afternoon because although it was only 68 degrees we had 81% humidity. Yuk. I ran a couple errands, got lawnmower gas and gassed up the car, went down to Lion's Mouth Bookstore to pick up my books that they cleared off their shelves after having them for over a year. (They sold one and returned two.) I'm coming to understand why bookstores won't take my books since I publish them on Amazon. That website is their direct competition, taking business away from them every day, so I sympathize. I'm just grateful for the ones that will take them and sell them. I gave in around 3:30pm and went out to mow. I felt like I didn't have a lot of energy which always makes me nervous but I finished the job and treated myself for doing it with a bottle of Gatorade Zero and that yummy BLT. There might have been chocolate ice cream after the sandwich.

When I went out to go to the gas station my neighbor and her 2-year-old were out in their front yard so I went over to say hi. The little one wanted to play in her sandbox "castle" so I went over to help her uncover the sand only to discover a dead rabbit on the other side of the sandbox. I let the mom know and got some plastic bags to dispose of the carcass so that little E didn't see the dead bunny. We told her that there was a "mess" over there and she had to stay away until Miss Barbara got the mess cleaned up. Whew. To be honest I don't think that the mom would have cleaned it up, she'd have hurried the little one into the house and waited until her husband came home. Barbara to the rescue!

--Barbara

A Big Wind

There was a severe thunderstorm warning around noon today. Usually we get those and nothing really interesting happens. Not today. It got dark and then it got windy, really windy. So windy it blew the patio umbrella over tilting the table along with it. Nothing was damaged. Then it rained really hard for a few minutes. It was over pretty fast. The birdfeeders really swung around and there are some branches down in the yard, twigs mostly but one biggish branch I can see. It didn't last long but it was fierce while it lasted. I was surprised that I didn't lose power.

Earlier a Downy Woodpecker came to investigate the nearly empty suet cakes feeder. I was surprised that he stayed long enough for me to take two pictures since there's really nothing to eat in there anymore.

I drew a cinnamon roll and hot dog from Drawing Cute this morning to give me something to do while the laundry was sloshing around. I could tell that I wouldn't have any luck writing today, I don't know how but I did, so I decided to draw and color a bit.

 

After supper I sat down and finished the One Skein Hat. I like the way it turned out although the top is a little pointier than I'd like but that's the way the pattern says to make it so that's the way I made it.

 

I started reading an Anguilla guidebook to learn about other places that I haven't mentioned to give me some new spots to send Rose's guests to. I'm a little disappointed that the author isn't naming specific places except for the historical museum and a couple beaches. The rest of his book is mostly just extolling the virtues of the island cuisine without naming a restaurant or talking about rum drinks without any beach bars. Guess I'll just have to keep on making stuff up.

And that was my day. The cleaner came and dusted and vacuumed and did the bathroom and the kitchen. It looks so nice when she's finished. And I did all the laundry. I even carried it all upstairs but haven't folded it yet. I don't want to rush into anything.

I'm hoping that the storm will usher in cooler and drier air. It's been unbearably humid the last few days, hot too. We can be done with that. I wouldn't mind. Plus it's time to mow again and I don't want to die in the heat and humidity.

--Barbara

The Gnawed Tomato

Hm, that sounds like a band name but it's really the pitiful state of my tomato and its brethren. I don't know how the plant is still alive, there's hardly any green leaves left. I go out and water it every day or every other day and it's hanging on. It looks like the chipmunk is coming back for additional bites but I left that gnawed tomato there purposely to maybe keep the other sad little tomatoes from being eaten before I get the chance.

There's only one orange day lily still blooming. It was so hot today--90 degrees with 80% humidity--that I'm surprised the flower didn't just flop over and give up. I would have. The bad thing was it was the first day of school so I don't know how the kids whose schools aren't air conditioned managed. Fingers crossed all of them have a/c.

Right next to the day lily the sedum flowers are starting to bloom. I love the tiny pink flowers against the pale green of the plant. I'm not a pink fan but even I have to admit that these flowers are pretty.

I girded my loins or maybe I rustled up my guts and tackled the next painting in Ink & Wash Florals. It's cosmos and daisies. Once again I took my time and sketched a couple thumbnails like the author recommends, then transferred the best one onto the watercolor paper, outlined it in archival ink, and started painting. It isn't too bad. Pink again but tinged with blue (another color I'm not overly fond of) however I like the way it turned out.

This afternoon I worked more on a scene I started the other day and added some good stuff. When I was getting ready to wrap it up for the day I checked my total word count and I was just over 200 words short of 45k. So I stretched out the scene and ended up at exactly 45,000 words. I know you can't see it but it says that in the lower left corner of the screen. Now I only need about 40,000 more words (35k at the minimum) to have a whole novel. Good thing I know a lot of words and some of them I'll use more than once.

 

Tonight after supper I sat down and worked on the One Skein Hat. I'd gotten to the crown decreases at Friday Night Knitting so I thought I'd keep going since it goes fast once you hit those. I'll probably finish the hat tomorrow night and then go back to working on the Zauber Crazy Sock on which I've been avoiding knitting the gusset (my least favorite sock part).

 

This morning I had a writing zoom with cda and LL. cda's been sick with West Nile Virus and hasn't had the energy or the motivation to write or critique for a few weeks but it was good to see her upright again. She's slowly getting better. I got a lot of good comments and a few interesting ideas from LL and hope I did the same for her. I'm so unsure of my critiques; I hope I'm not a disappointment.

I've got one more bowl of Easy Egg Drop Soup left to eat so I went downstairs and hauled up one each of the recipes I made over the weekend so they can thaw until they're needed. I thought I'd have another BLT when the soup runs out to give the portions thawing time. That's my rational anyway.

Mercy me, it's hot and muggy. I hope it doesn't stay long.

--Barbara

And Done

There were two more recipes to cook today and I took my time with them. First I got Chicken Cacciatore put together in the slow cooker. I was afraid I'd be short an onion but the remaining one was large enough that half was enough for the cacciatore. Once I got that cooking I planned to take a shower but then I realized that I'd be in clean clothes (probably a white tee shirt) and dealing with tomato sauce that I'd probably get on myself. Safer to keep on my dirty clothes, wear an apron, and shower after the cooking was done.

Once the slow cooker was cooking I plopped down to watch CBS Sunday Morning which I enjoy every week. They have such a wide range of stories and I enjoy most of them. Today I learned that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are 80. 80! And they're still writing new songs and touring. More power to 'em.

I spent some time working on the manuscript, not really getting anywhere, so I decided to make the last recipe--Curried Chickpeas. Yum. It's one of my favorites and the only meatless one I make. The other half of the onion was just right for it. It's also a quick one, only about 25 minutes from start to finish. And I was happy to learn that I had just enough leftover rice to scoop out 1/3 cup for the chickpeas and the cacciatore so I didn't have to make more or have too much that I had to freeze.

Once that was cooked, portioned, and carried downstairs to the freezer I knuckled down to writing for a couple hours. That time I got somewhere. Hooray! I realized today that I've got barely half as many words as I need for a full novel so I need to really bear down and get to work making up new stuff.

 

After supper I got out 20 Ways to Draw a Tree and got busy drawing stuff. I drew a terrible snowflake, an okay branch of berries, a sprig of parsley, a cockeyed snail, a feather, and a winter tree. The feather's my favorite.

Then I drew a gratitude journal page. Again it's mostly about cooking which has been my raison d'etre for the past three days but I have 58 suppers in the freezer. Fifty-eight! That means I won't have to cook again until November. I date the recipes when I make them and the last time I did Investment Cooking was in December when I was feeling so bad I'm amazed that I managed to do it at all. I have a vivid memory of gasping my way around the grocery determined to get everything on my list and not keel over. And I did it. It took me five days to make the seven recipes but I did that too. I'm a stubborn old broad.

I texted my friend MK to tell her that I found the chicken bacon she told me about and it's pretty darned good. It's not pork bacon but it's a whole lot better than no bacon. She'd also mentioned bread that's 2 slices for 1 point but I forgot to ask about it when we were together on Thursday. She texted back that I could get it at ALDI and even sent a picture of the bag. Naturally I went right over there and found the bread, then picked out some lettuce, and beefsteak tomatoes. I came home, toasted two slices of bread (2!) and made a BLT. It wasn't half bad. Next time I'm putting on more bacon but I'm most excited about the bread. I haven't had bread, sliced bread, in forever. Thanks, MK, you're a good friend.

After I was done with all that, then I took my shower. I deserved it with all of the cooking, dish washing, and trips down and up the basement stairs these past few days.

--Barbara

More Cooking

I spent most of the day cooking and washing dishes. I washed dishes four separate times. I refuse to let the dishes pile up so that I have a mountain of them to deal with at the end of the day so I wash whatever I use to make each recipe. So I get dishpan hands but it's worth it not to have the dirty dish mountain at the end of the day when I'm tired. First up today was getting the Chicken, Mushroom, and Brown Rice Casserole into the slow cooker set on Low and simmering for seven hours to make this yummy looking stuff. And there's eight servings!

Then I squished together BBQ-glazed Mini-Turkey Meatloaves. The recipe makes six but I had twice the meat so I made twelve. Twelve! That meant I had to find twelve little containers for twelve 1/3 cup scoops of brown rice to freeze alongside the meatloaf pucks. I only have seven of the perfect containers for the rice so I had to dig out others that are acceptable but I went online and ordered more of the perfect ones from Amazon. They'll be here on Wednesday which is too late for today's version but will be here for next time. Every time I have to portion out the rice I am so grateful that I discovered that the green-handled scoop is 1/3 cup. It's so much easier than using a measuring cup. A lot less spillage. Also I chopped up a bunch of scallions and kept the tops that I didn't need for the meatloaves and put them in a Tupperware in the freezer to see if they'll survive well enough to be garnish for the Sesame Chicken I made yesterday.

By then it was lunchtime so I had my usual chicken and chopped salad wrap with grapes and a clementine before dragging out my sketchbook and drawing the last six figures in 20 Ways to Draw a Jellyfish. The book calls the underwater guy a scuba diver but we all know that he's a snorkeler because he has no tank.

Next came One Pot Mexican Rice Skillet. It's one of the quickest and easiest recipes I make. It's another one from thepounddropper.com. I love how colorful it is with Rotel tomatoes, black beans, corn, onions, Minute Rice, and ground beef.

By then I was pretty tired so I came back here to see if I couldn't make heads or tails out of that new writing program I bought the other day. Nope. I've gotten emails from one of the support guys with very clear instructions and I've managed to load the little fixit program he wrote for me but looking at the program makes my shoulders tighten and my teeth clench. Not the way I want to feel when I'm writing so I emailed asking him to refund my money which he immediately did. Tomorrow I'll figure out how to take the program off my computer.

Just before I came back here I washed the slow cooker insert which I had to do because I forgot to put a liner in before putting the ingredients in. There was no way I was going to let rice and stuff crust onto the pan overnight. Then I drew a gratitude journal page. Today I'm mostly grateful for my cooking.

Look what came the other day! I ordered one copy of The Seaview retail so that I could put my hands on a book with the new cover. I think I like it. I got all excited when a sale showed up on my Amazon report until I realized that I'd been the one buying the book. Sheesh. The figure of the woman is the same one that's on Open For Business. I'm sensing a theme. I've seen book series on Amazon where every book in the series has the same cover, just the title is different and maybe the color of the font is different. Not sure I like that.

 

Today I made twenty-six servings of three different recipes. Yesterday I made twenty servings of three recipes. There are two more recipes left to be cooked tomorrow. Each of them makes six servings. I won't have to cook for a very long time. Hooray! The microwave is my friend.

--Barbara

All I Did Was Shop & Cook

Remember I decided yesterday that I needed to start back up Investment Cooking so I sorted out eight recipes and made a shopping list. It was a long list. Off I went to the grocery this morning and look at what I brought home. Five bags full! I spent almost $129 but there's a lot of meat, fresh veggies, and canned goods in those bags. I put it all away, had lunch, and got started cooking.

First I made Sesame Ground Chicken from thepounddropper.com. The original recipe only made four servings and I need at least six so I thought I'd make a batch and a half. But I could only buy ground chicken in one pound packages so it made sense to just double the recipe and make eight servings. So that's what I did. Then I cooked up a couple cups of brown rice so that I could scoop 1/3 cup into little Glad containers, top it with the Sesame Chicken, and slide it into the freezer. I've never made this before. I hope I like it. It's supposed to have green onion and sesame seeds garnish but I didn't think that the onion would survive the freezing. It's supposed to taste like Sesame Chicken from an Asian restaurant. It won't have that distinctive sticky coating but I'll bet it tastes pretty close anyway. I'm looking forward to trying it.

Next I put Italian Beef & Lentil Stew in the slow cooker. It has beef round, onion, garlic, diced zucchini, diced tomatoes, and lentils stewed in beef broth. That one is also a new recipe that makes six servings and it had to cook for seven hours so it was just done around 9:00pm. I scooped rice into Ziploc containers then topped it with the stew. It's very juicy stew so I thought it needed rice to soak up some of the liquid. I'm letting it cool a bit before I put the lids on the containers and carry it downstairs to the freezer.

I was going to quit for the day since it was mid-afternoon but then I thought I could make one more recipe pretty quickly so I made Chicken Breasts Pierre, which is one of my favorites. I had just enough rice left to scoop 1/3 cup into six Tupperware square rounds, divvy up the chicken and sauce, and put that in the freezer.

Only five more recipes to go. Two of them are slow cooker ones but all of them I've made before. I do one slow cooker recipe every day and then one or two more skillet or oven dishes the same day. I have to get it all done before time to take the trash out on Tuesday evening. All those meat packages will start to reek in the summer heat. Yuk.

I have a lot of different size and shape containers that I put the foods in so that I can pull out one of each every week (or so) and have a variety. I don't want to have to eat the same thing six nights in a row or eat BBQ Turkey Mini-Meatloaves twelve nights in a row. I've got this thing down to a science.

I didn't draw. I didn't paint. I didn't write. All I did was shop & cook. Oh, and I had two Zooms today, one writing and one knitting but other than those I was chained in the kitchen or grocery store all day. It was a good day. Plus the house smells great. And the smoke alarm didn't go off.

Oh, and when I went out to water the tomato and basil and snip some basil for the stew I noticed that some critter, probably a chipmunk, had decided to nibble on one of the tomatoes that had just started to turn red. Arrgh! So I picked the ones changing colors to let them finish ripening on the counter. Stupid chipmunk.

--Barbara

The Most Pathetic Tomato Plant

In captivity is mine. I went out the other day to trim off the dead and dying leaves and branches and there's hardly anything left. You can see that the tomatoes are starting to ripen but at the top of the picture are the sad looking leaves that are all that stands between life and the compost heap.

Other people's tomatoes are thriving. My knitting friend, NS, stopped over to pick up a couple baby afghans and brought me a container of cherry tomatoes. Oh my goodness, they're delicious. I dipped them in a little honey mustard dressing and had to restrain myself from eating them all.

In the "I thought I'd never see it" Department, the male Cardinal let a couple juvenile House Finches stay on the platform feeder while he was there. I kept watching but he didn't drive them away like the males usually do. He must have been in a good mood.

When I went out to take the picture of the tomatoes I investigated what I thought was a bit of squirrel tail snagged on a Slinky. I looked at it through the camera lens and realized that it's a feather. A Hawk feather? An Owl feather? I don't know but it's sure way too big to be from any of the little birds that usually hang around here. Maybe the Hawk swooped by for a snack when I wasn't looking.

This morning I spent a little time drawing out of 20 Ways to Draw a Butterfly, starting back at the beginning. So I drew a butterfly, an angel, a ladybug, a paper airplane, and a winged shoe. I like the ladybug, the rest are just okay.

I went to lunch with MK. We used to be neighbors and recently reconnected. We had a lovely chat, ate good food, and talked about what we do to keep sane. She commented that she sees improvement in my drawing and painting so I thought I should get my paints back out and tackle the last few lessons in Ink & Wash Florals that so intimidated me that I put it all away for weeks. I took my time, drew a sketch, and dug in. Tulips in a vase of water. Didn't turn out too bad. I'll tackle the next one maybe over the weekend.

I watched a pair of juvenile Grackles standing in the birdbath getting a drink and one of them chased the other away and then proceeded to take a very energetic bath. You wouldn't believe how much water a bathing bird that big splashes out of the birdbath. I had to go out and refill it.

And I made a gratitude journal page. I was grateful for my delicious salmon and broccoli at Olive Garden and I could live on ice cream the rest of my life.

One thing I did that surprised me this afternoon was I got out some recipes and made a shopping list to get back to Investment Cooking. I've spent the summer making soup, grilling chicken breasts, and eating chicken Italian sausages from Aldi and it's time to get back to having frozen portions. I've tried to stick to WW (most of the time) but ice cream is my downfall. I have to stop buying those tempting, on sale pints and eating them. I'm such a trial to myself.

I spent a couple hours trying to learn that new writing and formatting program I bought the other day. I got very frustrated when I discovered that I can't export a chapter into a Word doc to use in my critique group. I sent a message to Support complaining about it and asking for a solution or my money back. A guy responded with a little macro program that he said will let me do what I want. I'll try it and see how it goes but for now I'm not happy with it, not at all. Maybe this dog is too old for new tricks.

--Barbara